Alain Vaillancourt or commonly known as "The woodpecker". An active member of the online woodworking community with various project video's. He has been building his dream shop in a series on youtube. He does his show in both English and French, so we decided to do the interview in both English and French.

Hi I'm Alain Vaillancourt. I'm a French Canadian living near Montreal. For the past 29 years I've been working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as a news editor for the local English newscast. I've been influenced by woodworking almost all my life. When I was young, my father used to restore antiques in a department store in Montreal. But like most young people, this didn't interest me at the time. I've picked it up when my dad got sick; it's a shame. I could have learned so much from him. For the last 3 years, I've been producing woodworking videos in both English and French.

Shop size: In April 2014 I started building my new shop, which is almost finished now. But who can say that his workshop is completely finished?

The floor size is 25'X40'. A little less than 1000 square feet (because of the thickness of the walls) but 200 square feet are used as my garden shed. I also have a mezzanine at the back of the shop on top of the garden shed of 250 square feet.

How long have you been woodworking?
I tried woodworking when I was a teenager but abandoned it. I picked it up again about 8 years ago when my dad got sick and my mother wanted to get rid of my dad's mahogany. It was a pile of about 3 dozens of 36"x72" and 24"X96" solid department store counter tops ¾" thick. I couldn't throw that away, so I kept it and re-started to do woodworking.

What is your day job?
My "real" job, the one that pays for all my woodworking expenses is video editor for a local English newscast in Montreal. I've been doing that for 29 years and from time to time I also train new editors.

Can you remember your first project and what was it?
I did my real first woodworking project about 25 years ago. I made a pine entertainment center to hold our new 27" TV at the time. It has a lot of drawers to hold video cassettes. We still have it in our living room with the same TV. It must be true that "The son of the shoemaker has no shoes".

What made you decide to start producing online content?
I started producing woodworking videos because I couldn't find any in French. And while I was at it, I decided to make them in English also, even if my English is not the best.

What was your first video project?
My first video project was my clamp rack, which I haven't moved to my new shop yet. My old shop was a little room in my basement and I didn't have a lot of space so I made a special clamp rack with 3 layers of clamps on top of each other.

What camera setup and editing software do you have, do you have someone helping you, any extra gadgets that you use that helps you film?
I started with my old DVD recording Hitachi SD camera. I quickly bought a used Canon Vixia HFM30, which I'm still using today. I really love this camera, but the only drawback is that it doesn't have a wide angle capability, so I never have wide angle. I'm using Adobe premiere to edit my videos. Sometimes I ask Renée to film what I’m doing; mostly when I spray varnish, because I don’t want to expose my lens to this fume for too long.

Do you only do woodworking or do you work with any other materials?
I'm only using wood, but if I make something that needs fabric, like the laundry sorting cart, I ask Renée if she can sew something for me.

Do you have a project that you really want to make that just has not eventuated?
Having built a brand new shop last summer, I now have tons of projects I want to make both for the shop and the house. I'm not really sure in which order I'll make them but since I'm doing this for fun, I don't want to put any pressure on myself. I had enough pressure last year to finish the exterior of the shop before the ground was covered with snow.

What would be your ultimate build project?
I already built my ultimate project; my new shop. Anything I'll make after is just icing on the cake.

What is your favorite project you have made so far and why?
I know that I will sound like a broken record but again it’s my new shop. Building this was like building a really big piece of furniture, with huge tenons and mortices. It’s just wood everywhere, no OSB and no gyprock.

But my second favorite thing I made was my bedroom furniture, which was built with 99% recycled wood. That's the biggest thing I made with my dad's old mahogany panels.

Do you have a favorite tool, if so what is it and why?
I know this will sound weird, I must be a weirdo, but it's my two orbital sanders. The small one was the first tool I bought from Festool. I couldn't wrap my mind around how much I paid for a sander, but after using it, I got hooked and bought other Festool tools. Let’s be honest; sanding is not that fun, but I don't know why sanding with those sanders makes it almost fun.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
I don’t really know where my inspiration comes from. I read a lot of woodworking magazines, watch projects on the web and listen to other people’s projects. I guess it’s a mix of all this?

What do you have coming up in the near future?
I still need to make some storage space for my tools and other stuff, and I’ll make a mitre saw station. But when the snow will be all gone, I need to finish the exterior of my shop; the soffits and facia are not done. I also have no garage door to access my shed from the exterior, so I’ll make a garage door.

What advice would you give someone that may want to start making things?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I think that some people are scared to do stuff, don’t. Failure is part of life. If you make mistakes, just fix them and learn from them. Next time you won’t make them. You also don’t need fancy tools. A lot of my tools are second hand and almost all my planes came from my father. Others from the flea market. But the most important thing is to have fun. If what you do seems like a chore, maybe woodworking is not for you.

Fun Fact about yourself
Most people make their woodworking projects during the winter. For me winter is the time for a break. Instead of having the winter blues and staying inside wishing that the snow can’t melt soon enough, I jump on my snowmobile each weekend and ride in the mountains, to my cottage, etc… Any reason is a good one to go outside. -20° Celsius is not too cold; it’s just fun. So all my projects are coming forward in slow-motion during the winter. A weekend project for someone will take me 3 weeks to complete. The funniest thing is that almost everybody listening to my channel feels like they're listening to a strange accents. Most of my French listeners are from Europe and think I have like they says an "across the pound accents". And I don't need anyone to tell me about my English accent, so I only sound perfect to Quebecers.

Need a logo?
Need a logo designed or a small website, flyers, booklets, or any graphic artistry design.

Disclaimer: Any video or tutorial are intended for entertainment and inspiration purpose only and not educational. Woodworking and power tools can be dangerous. I may use a tool in a certain way, does NOT mean you should. Always seek professional advice or training and please read any manual before using any power tool. If you have any uncertainty before performing any woodworking procedure, stop and learn a safer alternative method. Do not attempt anything simply because you saw it via wackywoodworks.co.nz. I do not accept any responsibility for any injuries you may incur from replication of what you see in these videos.